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Personal

Full Name: Didier Ferdinand Agathe
aka: Didier Agathe
Born: 16 August 1975
Birthplace: Saint Pierre, France
Signed: 1 Sep 2000
Left: 12 Sep 2006
Position : Right Back/Wing Back/ Winger
Debut: Celtic 2-0 St Mirren, League, 14th October 2000
Internationals: none

Trivia

• Quirkily, he has played as a Rangers striker (sort of), albeit in the guff Robert Duvall comedy movie "A Shot At Glory".

Biog

Didier Agathe was born on the 16th August, 1975 in Saint-Pierre, Réunion. He began his career in France with Montpellier HSC and also had a loan spell with Olympique Alès. He moved to Scotland in 1999, playing for a year with Raith Rovers. At this time he was playing as a striker, and his goals alerted Premier League club Hibernian, who signed him on a short-term contract. Further impressive performances led to Celtic stepping in to sign Agathe for just £50,000 in 2000.

Didier can best be described as fine but flawed. Little more can be described as frustrating than watching Didier on the ball. He was able to make a dazzling run along the wing, aided by his great acceleration on the ball, only to then see him make an absolutely appalling cross of the ball to the strikers (if ever it even reached him).

Right back was more his forte, and when played here there was little anywhere who was as good. In Celtic’s UEFA Cup (2004) games v Barcelona, he tamed the gifted Ronaldinho, where the latter even applauded him on the pitch for his ability! A strong runner, and intelligent player, I’m sure that like many around him would say that the Barcelona games were his peak, although being part of the Seville Team was also one of the great highlights of his career.

Didier scarcely featured in the 2005-06 season under new manager Gordon Strachan,he was naturally very fit and was not the best of trainers - this did not go down well with Strachan who was a strict disciplinarian when it came to training - he was known to have double training sessions which did not go down well with some of the more experienced Pros with Celtic at the time in particular Agathe and Chris Sutton,indeed Sutton had more than one bust up with the Management team claiming that he "knew his own body". Agathe was linked with a number of clubs, including Valencia CF, Juventus, Middlesbrough, and Leeds United. However, no transfer was concluded by the end of the January transfer window, and an agreement was reached to terminate his contract with Celtic on February 1, 2006. Truth is that the end of his time was marked by some public spats, so it was only a matter of time before he was gone.

He had further trials in 2006 with Roma, Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and Torino, but failed to secure a deal. He eventually re-signed for Martin O'Neill at Aston Villa on a short term deal which saw him make 5 appearances before release in January 2007.

He had an unsuccessful trial with Nottingham Forest in July 2007. He is now believed to be back in La Reunion playing with local club Jeuness Sportif Saint Pierroise.

Playing Career

Club	From	To	Fee	League		Scottish Cup		League cup		Other
Aston Villa	12/09/2006	11/01/2007	Signed	0 (5)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0
Celtic	01/09/2000	12/09/2006	£ 50000	110 (11)	9	16 (0)	0	4 (0)	0	39 (1)	2
Hibernian	04/07/2000	01/09/2000	Free	5 (0)	4	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0
Raith	26/08/1999	04/07/2000	Free	30 (0)	7	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0
Montpellier	01/08/1998	26/08/1999		No appearance data available
Totals			£50,000	145 (16)	20	17 (0)	0	4 (2)	0	39 (2)	2
			goals / game	0.12		0		0		0.04
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

Honours with Celtic

Scottish League Titles

• 2000/01, 2001/02, 2003/04
  

Scottish Cup

• 2001, 2004, 2005
  

League Cup

• 2001
  

Pictures

• Didier Agathe - Pics

KStreet

• How good was Agathe? June 2007

Articles

WINGER AND A PRAYER - DIDIER'S SECRET PILGRIMAGE TO RESTORE STATUE OF MARY

CELTIC star Didier Agathe is making secret visits to a graveyard to help restore a statue of the Virgin Mary. The winger frequently visits St Peter's Cemetery, just a few hundred yards from Celtic's Glasgow training ground.

He discovered it had a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, erected at a woman's grave, in a state of disrepair.

So Agathe has been using his visits after training to help fix the statue.
On the anniversary of the death of the woman, the 27-year-old footballer, who is a devout Catholic, bought flowers from a local florist.

The widower of the dead woman has met with the star and now the two of them are making sure the statue looks like a fitting tribute. Agathe even asked the pensioner, of Dennistoun, Glasgow, for his permission to keep up his visits.

The star, who played a vital part in both Celtic goals last Thursday to earn them a place in the UEFA Cup quarter- finals, is known to take his religious beliefs very seriously.

He was born on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where 86 per cent of the population are Catholic. Agathe prefers not to spend his wages on high living and has helped youth projects in Reunion through his career in football.

He spends every Sunday and most days after training visiting the statue in the east end of Glasgow. The family who own the plot declined to comment on Agathe's good deed.

A spokesman for Celtic said: "Didier considers his religion and football to be two totally different things.

"This is a very private matter for him.

"He only went to the statue a few times to clean it up but doesn't want a big fuss made of it."

The story of Our Lady of Fatima relates to claims made in 1917 by a group of three children that Mary appeared before them with a message for all mankind.

The children were playing near Fatima, Portugal, when they claim they were visited six times in total by the mother of Christ, who warned the world to repent for its sin and asked all Catholics to pray for Russia. Agathe shares his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima with Pope John Paul II.

The Pope believes that Our Lady of Fatima saved his life after the 1981 assassination bid by Turk Mehmet Ali Acga in Rome. On his last vist to Portugal, the pontiff placed the bullet which was removed from his wound in the shrine at Fatima.